Cheesy Baked Bean & Quorn Chilli Microwave

This one pot cheats cheesy baked bean and Quorn chilli is made in the microwave in under 10 minutes from start to finish with frozen Quorn mince. You can even eat it from the same pot!

I love using my Microwave Noodle Bowl to cook this fast lunch – because it’s the right size, has a handy handle, can be used as my eating dish and washes up very easily.  This can be done in a mug, although you might have to halve the ingredients due to the volume!  I cook in jugs, rather than mugs, giving me the flexibility of eating a full sized meal AND there’s no spillage to clean up!

This cheesy baked bean chilli started off with me piling up what I needed to use up from the fridge, then adding in some other ingredients I like to keep in the cupboards/freezer, to make a fast and filling delicious hot lunch!

Ingredients:

• 40-80 grams of Quorn mince.  Although I used 80 grams, I could’ve used a lot less. 80grams of Quorn mince makes a full sized lunch portion.
• 1/4 bell pepper, sliced and diced.
• ½ a can of baked beans, so ~200 grams.
• 2 teaspoons cayenne pepper – or you can use chilli pepper.
• 2 tablespoons dried fried onions.

Method:

1. Dump all the ingredients into a microwave mug, jug or bowl.
2. Added a couple of tablespoons of water (to help the Quorn to rehydrate).
3. Give it all a good stir around.
4. Microwave for 3 minutes on full power then leave it to stand for 1-2 minutes, giving time for the flavours to really mingle.
5. Give it a stir and a quick taste, in case you want to add more chilli.
6. Microwave for a further 2 minutes on full power, then leave it to stand for 1-2 minutes.

Serve!

Cheese Topped?

Now, for the cheesy bit, I tipped some grated Cheddar cheese on the top.  I could’ve stirred this through, but I preferred to just have it sitting on the top of the dish.

And, one of the best bits, to wash up, I simply swirled the dish around with some water and rinsed it out, before refilling with water and leaving it like that in the bowl until I fancy doing the washing up!

If you wish to serve this on a plate, then it’ll go well with a portion of rice, noodles, tortilla chips, garlic bread or even as a large baked potato topping.  This makes enough to serve two if you’re going to add additional items to the plate.

I figure, for those that count these things, that this must count for three of my 5-a-day…. the onions, baked beans and the green pepper I used. 🙂

My primary objectives, as ever, were to have zero waste food in the kitchen, to produce a hot and tasty meal ASAP and to produce food on a budget.

Menu Cost:

The cost of this meal was: Quorn mince £0.30, baked beans £0.12, 1/4 pepper £0.05, cayenne and onion approx £0.03.  Total cost ~£0.50.  It’s a “50p Dinner”